


Duet

by griseldalafey



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Showdown 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 17:11:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3818344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/griseldalafey/pseuds/griseldalafey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gold, a singer who's been in the business for almost three decades has to perform a duet on New Year's Eve with a woman he's never met and hasn't had the chance to rehearse with. But when Belle French walks out on the stage he's her most captivated audience. (Round 5 entry)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duet

**Author's Note:**

> The prompts were: New Year's Eve, interruptions, insanity

Literally everything had gone wrong from the moment he had opened his eyes that morning. The New Year’s Eve concert at the Midas Hall was probably the biggest gig of the year, the entire stadium was sold out to the last seat, but apparently something as simple as setting up a sound-check was beyond the realm of possibility and by the time afternoon rolled around, Gold was ready to pull out his hair in frustration.

He’d been in the music business for twenty-eight year, but never had a final rehearsal for a concert been so fraud with interruptions, cock-ups and general insanity.  The final straw came a scant hour before the doors were about to open and his agent told him that the female singer with whom he was supposed to sing a duet with had backed out at the last minute.

He had ranted and raved for a good twenty minutes, threatening to call his performance off as well, while his agent remained entirely unflappable.   
 “Darling, let’s not be overdramatic please. I have already found you a perfectly suitable replacement. Unfortunately you won’t have time to rehearse with her anymore, so you’ll have to improvise on stage, but I’m sure you’ll rise spectacularly to the challenge.”

Rationally knowing that he couldn’t afford to blow off a high featured concert on New Year’s Eve if he wanted to remain on the label of Devil Records, he grudgingly agreed,

But standing on center stage, dressed in black leather pants and a cream silk shirt, all lights off, the entire stadium holding its collective breath before the concert was about to start, he couldn’t stop the nerves from pumping through his veins. Everything was out of his hands and this what not a concept he was comfortable with. He knew he had the reputation of being a control-freak, micromanaging every single detail from the way the microphones were set to the outfits he wore on stage.

Trying to focus himself, he took a deep, shuddering breath as two spotlights switched on and glided over him and the band behind him.   
At least he knew them.   
Behind the keyboard, The Hat started the sizzling, fast paced intro and Gold felt his anxiety starting to mix with a rush of adrenaline.

Somewhere in the crowd someone cheered loudly.

 Bringing the mic to his mouth, Gold waited for the exact moment the intro slowed down before bellowing out the first lines of the verse:

_‘And I will do anything for love,_   
_I’d run right into hell and back,_   
_I would do anything for love,_   
_I’d never lie to you and that’s a fact._   
_But I never forget the way you feel right now,_   
_oh no, no way._   
_And I would do anything for love,_   
_but I won’t do that._   
_No, I won’t do that.’_

The familiar notes rolled off his tongue like he was greeting a long lost friend and suddenly his chest felt wider, his lungs filling with air.  Then the band kicked in with full force and from the corner of his eye he could see Ruby jamming her guitar, her long, red-streaked black hair waving furiously. The crowd was on their feet almost instantly, stamping, clapping and screaming, howling along with the lyrics, electrifying him until his face and upper torso were drenched with sweat.

_‘I would do anything for love,_   
_and there’ll never be no turning back._   
_But I’ll never do it better than I do it with you,_   
_so long. So long.’_

By the time the song reached its end and he knew the unknown singer was about to appear on the stage for the final part of the performance, his nerves flared again and he started bouncing on the stage, trying to defuse his nervous energy and pour his emotions into the song.   
This was insanity… the entire stadium was drumming with adrenaline and it could all fall flat in a matter of seconds if the singer wasn't as capable as Ella had assured her to be or if their voices didn’t match…

The band slowed again until The Hat was the only one left playing, the tones of the keyboard sounding almost fragile in the vast space. His anxiety gave his voice an even hoarser quality as he stilled on the stage, becoming almost motionless as he sang the final part of the chorus, his eyes tightly shut, every nerve in his body quivering:

_‘Oh, I would do anything for love,_   
_but I won’t do that._   
_No, I won’t do that.'_

For a second -the longest second of his life - the stadium was absolutely quiet and then a soft, lilting voice filled the air.

_‘Will you raise me up?_   
_Will you help me down?_   
_Will you get me right out of this godforsaken town?’_

His eyes flew open and landed on a petite woman, walking towards him in a slow, tantalizing pace, her long, chestnut curls bouncing softly around her shoulders and immediately his mouth went dry.  
She kept his gaze fixed on him as she approached him and there was something in her look that made it impossible for him to look anywhere else but at her. 

_‘Will you make it all a little less cold?’_

She was wearing a short, blue dress with a flared skirt and incredible high, silver heels that she walked in without faltering until she came to stand right in front of him. It was only then that he noticed that the color of her dress paled in comparison to the intense blue of her eyes.    
She was a tiny thing and yet she filled the entire stage, a bright spat of color among the mostly dark surroundings and he was utterly captivated.

She gazed up at him, holding his eyes with her own and for a moment he forgot his lyrics, forgot how to move his mouth, forgot how to fucking breathe, The Hat having to repeat the riff over and over again before he snapped out of it.

_‘I can do that…_   
_Oh oh, I can do that.’_

She gave him a beaming smile, leaning closer towards him until he could inhale the flowery scent of her hair.

_‘Will you cater to every fantasy I got?_   
_Will you hose me down with holy water, if I get too hot?_   
_Will you take me places I’ve never known?’_

Her deep voice, sweet, with a hint of rawness around the edges waved itself around him and he was mesmerized by the look in her eyes, by the warmth and gentleness of it, his stomach fluttering as he replied, his voice heavy with longing:

_‘I can do that…_   
_Oh oh, I can do that.’_

She gave him another one of her radiant smiles as her hand came up and petted the side of his head, the unexpected tender gesture sending shivers down his spine. Purely on instinct he leaned into her touch, shaking against her palm as she buried her hand in his hair, curling her fingers around the long strands at the nape of his neck, stroking them soothingly.

_‘I know the territory, I’ve been around,_   
_It’ll all turn to dust and we’ll all fall down._   
_Sooner or later you’ll be screwing around.’_

Of its own accord his free hand came to rest on the curve of her hip and he could feel the heat of her body burning into his skin.  Without thinking he let his hand slid lower over her thigh, until it reached the hem of her skirt and he fiddled mindlessly with the material until a wolf whistle from the audience brought him back to his senses.

Bringing his hand back to her hip, he rested his forehead against hers as he brought up the mic between them, never breaking their eye-contact before finishing in a low, raw tone:

_‘I won’t do that._   
_No, I won’t do that.’_

And then they were singing together, the softness of her voice soothing the hoarseness of his and his entire skin prickled with the sensation of how right it was, how incredible they sounded together. His heart was pounding in his ears and he was sure she was able to hear it, but he couldn’t bring himself to care about it. In the far distance, the crowd was going wild, but he could barely hear them. All he was aware of was the woman standing in his arms, who’s scent enveloped him and who was still lovingly caressing his hair and the back of his neck, her eyes shining softly at him as if she was singing for him alone and meaning every word of it.

He clutched her hip tighter, wanting to keep her close, to hold on to this perfect creature for as long as she’d let him.

_‘Anything for love._   
_But I won’t do that.’_

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been looking for an excuse to write this scene for a while. (And to have Gold wearing leather again ;)  
> The song ‘Anything For Love’ of course belongs to the legendary Meat Loaf.   
>  It had to be this song since the original videoclip was Beauty and the Beast themed. Admittedly, there was a lot more panting and bedroom-eyes in the clip than in the original Disney movie, but as far as I’m concerned it’s still pretty much the Rumbelle Anthem


End file.
